Easily Amused

My cat is sleeping on the bed, oblivious to the thunderstorm brewing outside. His curled up position makes him look like a baby seal, so chubby and cute. But I bet baby seals don’t whine as much as he does (he whines about 179 times a day).

The coffee on my desk is 5 hours old and tastes like what a 5-hour-old coffee should taste like - bitter, with resentment for a glory lost.

I have a handful of pistachio shells on a piece of recycled paper. I wondered what they could be reused for. Googling for an answer, I found “helmets for snails“. LOL :)

PS: Busy week for me, yay for weekends!

No More Fear for Tears

My weekend was full of tears.

It’s not what you think. We had a DVD marathon on Saturday and somehow I ended up crying watching ALL the movies . There was Before Sunset  (I was sad throughout the movie actually but the tear pipes burst at the scene in the car) The Wrestler (kinda predictable but can I say perfect casting, Mickey Rourke!? I cried when he told his daughter he didn’t want her to hate him, and when he had to work at the deli counter) and… Wall-E! I can’t believe I cried so much watching an animated film! Ha ha!

You know how when you’re watching a movie with a couple of other people and you get a bit choked during a scene (especially one that didn’t seem all that sad)? You would glance over to check if the others watching are getting as emotional as you are, right? And then you note that everyone else seems unaffected (or pretend they are) so you decide to hold them tears? That’s really hard work! I’ve decided that if I’m gonna cry when I watch a movie - let the tears flow. :D

My Blogging History - How I started blogging

I didn’t really decide one fine day to start a blog.

I created my first personal website in 1999. I was looking for a job in web design then so it was a requisite to have your own website. The site showcased my design work, contained a little introduction about myself and included my resume.

When I got a job, the function of the website slowly evolved to that of an online diary (now called “blogging”), with a few of my pictures thrown in for no reason whatsoever (the early seeds of  “camwhoring”).

I didn’t update the site regularly because if I had something to say to the world, I had to stop and think whether it justified the 50-minute process involved in publishing a file to the Internet.

For the uninitiated, in the pre-push-button-publishing era, updating a page involved editing HTML codes in a local application, saving the file and then FTPing the updated file to the server via a SLOW DIAL UP CONNECTION. The annoying part was, only after doing all that do you notice you had coded/formatted/written a paragraph wrongly. So you had to repeat the whole process all over again. Uploading photos? Before doing all the steps above, you had to go through the trouble of developing AND scanning photos (remember, those were the days of film camera). Phew!

Online publishing today is much simpler. It involves merely clicking the button called “publish” or “post” in your blog publishing application. I started using Blogger in 2005 and then WordPress in 2008.

How long have you been blogging?

Blog Bug

As you may have noticed, there’s dearth of blog posts here. I also realised a few of the personal blogs I’ve been following seem to have reduced the frequency of postings too.

Is it me or is there a blog bug going around? Have priorities shift this year? Has it got anything to do with the economy (less blogging, more worrying or ‘there’s nothing positive to blog about, so why bother’)? Or is it something else?

Zero or Max?

I passed by two large posters within steps of each other on my way home. The first one was that of Coke Zero, the second, Pepsi Max. I find it interesting how each company decides to market these similar products using different angles. One emphasises on the drink’s maximum taste (sans sugar), the other on the lack of calories (while retaining its original flavour):

Pepsi Max — Maximum Taste, No Sugar vs Coca-Calo Zero — Real Coke Taste, Zero Calories 

It could well be Pepsi None or Coke Full. Maybe even “Pepsi No!!!” or “Coke Real?”. I amuse myself with silly little thoughts sometimes.

Which do you prefer?

The Wedding Poultry

I’m back. I probably have 3 (5? 10?) loads of washing to do and currently in a state of post-holiday slump. Well technically, it wasn’t really a vacation:

“You will be the free-range photographer.”

“Free-range?!”

“There will be an official photographer capturing the couple’s every move. You’ll document everything else.”

“Oh, I get it, I’ll be running around like a crazy chicken.”

“Exactly.”

PS: Happy Election Day, US folks!

Not Something You’d Usually Say

“Hurry up! Your dinner’s getting warm!”

I yelled to my husband, after preparing a batch of zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodles) last night.

After the Rain

The landscape is saturated with the smell of warm, wet grass. It was raining an hour ago. I’m going for a quick run.

Do You Bite or Lick?

I lick my ice-cream, except when it’s chocolate-dipped, in which case, I bite the coating off first and then proceed with the licking. :)

Have a good Sunday (or a good sundae?)!

Apparently Not The King
Overheard Conversation Between Two Early Teens

Overheard in a fast-food restaurant:

A: Who is Elvis Presley?

B: You don’t know Elvis Presley?!

A: No, I don’t. Who is Elvis Presley?

B: He invented rock.

A: Nope, I’ve never heard of him.